It's Fall, Y'all

The weather is tempermental around these parts. Hot, sweaty days followed by cloudy, drizzly, cold days, then back to warm again. I'm so very ready for the thermometer to settle into the cool temperatures that mean long sleeves and fuzzy socks and steaming hot soup. The leaves have just barely started to turn here and fall is teasing us with small tastes of sweater days.

Whatever the temperature outside, my calendar says it's officially autumn and I've started pulling out the appropriate seasonal decor. Nothing says autumn like pumpkins on the lamp tables and spicy scented candles spilling their dusky fragrance into the air. I only have one tub of decorations to pull out when I feel fall moving in, but I'm working on that.

One day last week, my mom and I took the girls to Hobby Lobby where we wandered through the aisles of fall decor, exclaiming over everything. It was all "so cute!" "beautiful!" "I love this!" "Wouldn't this look nice _______?!"

I love shopping with my mom.

The thing we both loved best were the amazing variety of decorative pumpkins. They came in all sizes, shapes, and materials. And they were half off! Seeing all the different styles gathered together made us comment that it would make a beautiful display at home. We had each picked out one for ourselves and as we followed K back to the fabric section, I had an idea. A new tradition to start.

Each fall, my mom and I are going to give each other a pumpkin.

In a few years, we'll have quite a collection to use in our decorating. So we promptly traded pumpkins there in the store and we had our first annual pumpkin exchange. We both each already had one at home, so we're now up to 2.


Aren't they pretty? Don't you love the warm colors? The one made of woven leaves is the one I picked out and Mom bought for me. The wrought iron one is a candle holder I've had for years. We saw a beautiful large one of these filled with beads and leaves at the store and it was hugely expensive. Mom reminded me that I already had the metal frame, so I just picked up a couple of cheap 1/2 price floral picks of fall leaves/fruit/beads and made my own version.

To continue our tour of my new fall decor, here's what's now sitting on my coffee table.


I saw this little house at a shop in Blowing Rock for cheap and it's exactly what I've been looking for for awhile. I bought this really neat battery-operated fake candle and the pedestal holder, then filled in around it with pieces from a dismantled flower arrangement. The beauty of it is that I can redesign it for every season.

Last is this little house I made at my first meeting with the Altered Book Club.


It's supposed to represent the inside of my. home and I love the way it turned out. The front is done in the colors and style that I use to decorate the main living areas of our house - fall colors, classic lines mixed with homemade coziness. It's the look and feel that are my goals.

The back, however, is what it really comes out like - a circuit board because we're such a techie family, pink boa and gems for the little daughter, soft pink bird for the oldest daughter, old and traditional mixed with new and modern. And somehow it all works. This is one piece of decor that won't get put away with the fall stuff, I think.